The 'More/All Electric Aircraft' offers significant potential to reduce aircraft energy consumption, and consequential lower fuel burn and emissions. With on-board electrical power generation capacity reaching 1.5MVA for new aircraft and future forecasts showing an upward trend with electric propulsion aggressive power density targets are being set for the new electric generators and power electronic equipment to be installed. The group is working on a range of solutions to improve the efficiency and robustness of aircraft generation technologies with a focus on power dense permanent magnet machines and integration of the power electronic control. 

Safran-Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship in Advanced Aircraft Power Generation Systems

This prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship held by Professor Xibo Yuan is investigating the enabling and underpinning technologies for More Electric Aircraft in the area of high-density power electronics and electric generator systems, focusing on close structural and functional integration of power electronics and electrical machines. The research capitalises on recent developments of wide-bandgap power semiconductors, multilevel converters, permanent machines, and multi-physics design. 

Power Future More-Electric Rotorcraft

Rotorcraft have a significant amount of installed electrical generation primarily for de-icing.  Alternative lighter weight and more robust systems for gernerating this power are being explored allowing an increase in capacity to enable future designs of rotorcraft to benefit from the more-electric revolution seen in fixed-wing aircraft.  A recent EU Clean Sky Project has investigated the feasibility of regeneratively recovering the kinetic energy stored in the main rotor of a large helicopters as this offers maintenance and reliability benefits of the traditional mechanical brake and has control potential during autorotation.